Gift Wrapped
Gift Wrapped is a 1952 Looney Tunes short directed by Friz Freleng. Plot Sylvester awakes on Christmas morning to find a present for him. To his disappointment, it is merely a rubber mouse. He hears a canary, namely Tweety, singing "Jingle Bells" in his cage, which has been gift wrapped and addressed to Granny. Just before she enters the room, he switches the cage's tag so that it's addressed "To Kitty" instead. Granny innocently gives the cage to Sylvester and opens the box with the rubber mouse. Believing there has been an innocent mix-up, she goes to give Sylvester the mouse and correct the mistake. Upon seeing a satisfied Sylvester hiccup Tweety's feathers, Granny angrily forces Sylvester to regurgitate Tweety. After giving the wayward cat a scolding, Granny insists that Sylvester kiss Tweety under a sprig of mistletoe. Sylvester eats Tweety Bird again instead, and is once again scolded and forced to spit him out. Granny places Tweety's cage up high where Sylvester shouldn't be able to reach him. Undaunted, the ever-resourceful feline retrieves a ladder, climbs up to Tweety's cage, and opens it with the intent to eat him. Tweety Bird manages to convince Sylvester that a huge present waiting under the Christmas tree is for Sylvester. Sylvester abandons Tweety in his greed, and opens the present with relish. It turns out to be Hector the Bulldog, who promptly ate Sylvester. Granny arrives and forced the dog to spit out Sylvester, and then throws the dog out of her house. Sylvester tries to get Tweety by using a toy steam crane. Instead, he accidentally catches an angry Granny, who bashes Sylvester with a broom. The feline retreats to the second floor of the house and attempts to saw a hole in the floor to be able to descend upon Tweety from above. Tweety replaces himself in the cage with a stick of lit dynamite, which goes off just as Sylvester pulls the cage up to his level. Sylvester then puts the wrecked cage back and stumbles down the stairs, blackened and torn up from the explosion. His next attempt is a Western-style showdown with Tweety, with himself playing Geronimo and Tweety playing Hopalong Cassidy. Sylvester wins, but before he can consume his prize, Granny shoots a plunger over his mouth, and declares, "You didn't count on Pocahontas, did you, Geronimo?" While Tweety rides on his new train set, Sylvester tries one last time to catch him. He takes some spare train tracks, sets them up to point towards his open mouth, and then puts the train in reverse. The train goes over the new tracks, and towards Sylvester who then devours Tweety, only to be devoured himself by Hector the Bulldog who has somehow come back in the house. Granny whacks the dog until he coughs up Sylvester, and then whacks Sylvester until he coughs up Tweety. Granny announces she's had enough, and that she'll show Sylvester and the dog there will be peace in the house once and for all. Granny and Tweety sing a variation of the Christmas carol "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". On Tweety's right and left are Sylvester and the dog with stamps sealing their mouths. Availability * (1989) VHS - It's a Tweety Christmas * (1991) VHS - Tweety & Sylvesters - Crazy Christmas * (1991) VHS - Christmas Looney Tunes UK * (1980) LaserDisc - Sylvester and Tweety's Bad Ol' Putty Tat Blues * (1999) VHS - Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 9: A Looney Life * (2001) DVD - I Love Tweety: Volume 2 * (2004) DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2, Disc Three * (2010) DVD - Looney Tunes Super Stars' Tweety & Sylvester: Feline Fwenzy * (2012) Blu-ray, DVD - Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2, Disc 1 Censorship * The ABC airing of this cartoon edited three scenes: Granny bashing Sylvester with her broom was shortened, the shot of Sylvester staggering down the stairs after getting blown up by the dynamite stick that Tweety substituted for himself in the cage was cut, and the part during the "Hopalong Cassidy" sequence where Sylvester gets shot by Tweety's toy gun and falls down the Christmas tree (with an abrupt cut from traveling up the tree to Tweety being chased by Sylvester). * Cartoon Network, Boomerang and The WB left the "dynamite in the cage" sequence intact, but edited out the entire Hopalong Cassidy sequence from fade in to fade out (because of the American Indian stereotyping and gunfire), fading out into the train sequence instead. It should be noted that, despite being cut from the cartoon proper, the clip show cartoon "Tweet Dreams" was shown on Cartoon Network and The WB with the offending sequence uncensored and Boomerang currently airs the short uncensored as well. Notes * This short is the first Friz Freleng cartoon to have Irv Wyner as a background artist. * This short, along with the Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam cartoon "Ballot Box Bunny" and the Pepe Le Pew cartoon, "Little Beau Pepe", were in the running to be nominated for Best Animated Short for the 1952 Academy Awards. External Links * * [https://sfx-resource.fandom.com/wiki/Gift_Wrapped_(1952) Gift Wrapped] on the SFX Resource Category:Looney Tunes Shorts Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng Category:Sylvester Cartoons Category:Tweety Cartoons Category:Granny Cartoons Category:Shorts Category:1952 Category:Blue Ribbon reissues Category:Cartoons written by Warren Foster Category:Cartoons with layouts by Hawley Pratt Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Irv Wyner Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Bea Benaderet Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Daws Butler Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn